AT&T slashes cost on pricing plans yet again

Dallas-based AT&T Inc. cut the cost of its 2GB Mobile Share value pricing plan by $15 a month in the latest move in a heated duel with T-Mobile and other carriers for customers.

Adrian Quintanilla, AT&T’s director of sales for North Texas, compares the company’s new pricing plan to a bucket.

Take one or two smartphones. Throw in 2GB of data. Add unlimited talk and text and unlimited international messaging. Then toss in 50GB of cloud storage.

Charge $65 a month for one phone or $90 for two devices, which is $15 a month less expensive than before.

The cloud storage part of the bucket has Quintanilla especially pumped.

“That’s a tremendous value-add,” Quintanilla said. “To put that into perspective, what that enables you to do is to store up to 30,000 photos safe and secure on the network and access them on different connected devices. You can store things like photos, videos, music, documents. There is an auto-upload feature, too.”

The package deal is an attractive option for families, individuals and businesses, he said.

It’s an especially good deal for customers who leverage it with AT&T’s Next program, which allows customers to get a new mobile device every year with no activation fee, he said.

AT&T’s new pricing took effect March 9, and it includes those who are still under a contract.

AT&T’s price drop came two days after rival T-Mobile increased its prices for unlimited 4G LTE access by $10 to $80. T-Mobile also offers free talk and text within the U.S. and to select countries, with no annual contract.

“It’s a fun time to be redefining the industry,” Quintanilla said. “Really creating some value options for our customers. It’s a great time to be able to give customers what they really want, which is value and technology that makes a difference.”

Since January, AT&T and T-Mobile have cut costs and directly targeted each others’ customers. In early January, T-Mobile announced that it would cover up to $650 in termination fees for consumers who leave their carrier and switch to T-Mobile.

In early February, AT&T cut the price on its family wireless plans. That move came a couple of weeks after AT&T announced that it would offer financial incentives of up to $450 to any T-Mobile customer who switched to its service.

Not all of the battle tactics have been traditional, however.

In January, T-Mobile CEO John LeGere crashed an AT&T party at the industry’s biggest trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and was booted from the bash by security after a reporter tweeted his photo with LeGere.